Red Planet • A World of Adventure for Fate Core

It’s the year 773 Post Revolution, and Mars is basking in the long embrace of progressive materialism. The Union of Materialist Republics rules over a utopian planet and two moon colonies. The people are happy in their roles; the governments of the Republic remain at peace with one another; technology designed to better mankind advances by leaps and bounds.

But all is not entirely peaceful, for the Union is under attack by the corrupt “U.S.S.R.” and decadent “U.S.A.” back on Earth, the feudal alien Venusians, and the expansionist two-dimensional Country of the Geometers!

Defend the Union and Mars against its enemies, and bring glory to yourself, your squad, and your collective. Put your lives on the line to defend utopia in Red Planet, a Soviet retro-pulp adventure by Jess Nevins. Red Planet requires Fate Core to play. This 59-page supplement includes:

A detailed review of the solar system—Fate-style

A social-class based character generation system with two new skills: pilot and renown

Interesting new rules for Conversions: a mental conflict in which characters try to convince others to agree with their point of view

Pulp-style spaceships and gear to equip your campaign

A sample adventure: 34 Chernykh

Welcome, Citizen, to the Red Planet.

The Fate Adventures & Worlds line provides compact, rich, affordable, gorgeous settings with a ready-to-go adventure for GMs in a pinch. Buy one this afternoon, be ready to run this evening.

Good to see a pulp setting for SF that is based on the long tradition of socialist SF. These are not Soviets of the Stalinist school nor the usual capitalists in space that we see in most US written SF rpgs. As a big fan of most SF rpgs, including the capitalist ones, it's great to a see a pulpy utopian one that allows exploration of the role of socialism in a fun way. Many people still believe that the future is communist, so even if you don't, why not have some fun with it? You can subvert it if you like, after all, it's your game..

Christopher GFebruary 25, 2017 8:08 pm UTC

PURCHASER

So...what exactly IS progressive materialism?

Paul RMarch 18, 2017 3:27 am UTC

PURCHASER

I was wondering that myself. There is a list of mottos on page 21 that give a basic idea (Communism and Socialism without the major flaws or the historical baggage) but a clear 'This is What We Stand For' type list there is not.

Christopher GMarch 31, 2017 4:11 am UTC

PURCHASER

Yeah, a solid 'is and is not' kind of thing would definitely go a long way.

DIOGO AJanuary 12, 2017 1:25 pm UTC

So, do you have plans for a POD option ?

January 12, 2017 4:15 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

Not at this time. The ROI hasn't been proven there, given past experience.

Pierre SJanuary 04, 2017 7:14 am UTC

Well! This product has courted some controversy. They tried to mention the historical context of real Communism, showing its evils, but not enough.

Personally I don't think you'd have a successful Communist society on Mars. Communism doesn't listen to human needs, claims to control the market with central planning, but that creates shortages and queues to obtain rations. Queues are bad if it's for razor-blades, the people get angry if it's a queue for bread, and they will be positively DEAD on Mars if they have to queue up for oxygen...

January 04, 2017 4:41 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

And yet, we get no complaints about how Venus doesn't have a breathable atmosphere, and Uranus doesn't have ground to stand on ... everything here is pulp-derived, just not American pulp, and that includes the utopian communism-like philosophy of Material Progressivism the text talks about.

Pierre SJanuary 05, 2017 1:59 pm UTC

Haha, yeah. But L. Ron Hubbard said he astrally travelled to Venus, AND was nearly run over by a freight-train! This is Tom Cruise's faith, so I GOTTA believe that!
You can check out the old Soviet silent movie AELITA (Princess of Mars). She wore a model of the Solar System on her head. It was big in its time. Earth visitors were assumed to be Communists, but "it was all a dream" or something like that.

Jason YFebruary 25, 2017 5:30 pm UTC

How exactly do you think that space travel currently works? Do you think astronauts are bartering for food on a space station? It is, in fact, most likely that initial colonies would indeed be "communism" in the sense that they are financially supported and rationed by the government that funded their mission. There's no reason to believe that this practice wouldn't continue until there is some way for people to be self-sufficient on the planet.

Pierre SFebruary 28, 2017 4:03 am UTC

Read the story "The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert Heinlein. Nothing gets done unless there is a capitalist profit-motive.

Kate BApril 06, 2017 11:48 am UTC

PURCHASER

Tell that to the Soviet space program that beat us to literally every major milestone except the Moon.

An exciting and well conceived pulp "rocket ships and ray guns" type sci fi setting for Fate Core Rpg. The thing that makes it particularly interesting and different from standard fare, is the basic premise that the players characters are [...]

Based on comunist sorry usa usa usa !! Who makes this up? Not in my games and not in anything that I actually would pay money for. What does this teach us nothing but a false doctrine of hate ie Comunistic proproganda. Why do they even have this up on [...]

First, I am giving this a 4 out of 5 stars not for any production issue or for any game play issue. I am a Patreon supporter of the Worlds of Adventure for Fate Core and FAE. This setting meets or exceeds all the game play criteria of any of the Evil [...]

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